This invention relates to a gear system wherein the drive gear has an internal resilient compressible plug means adapted to resiliently absorb high load forces that can occur during operation of the gear system. The internal force absorbing action is useful in various different situations, e.g. to accommodate temporary overload conditions, or to absorb cyclic overloads of a recurring nature, or to smooth the velocity of the driven gear for timing purposes, or to absorb load forces during system start-up periods, or to promote a smooth gear mesh action when the driven gear may have to rapidly accelerate to the speed of the drive gear.
In many gear systems a flexible coupling is often used to resiliently absorb peak forces that can occur randomly or cyclically. Usually the flexible coupling is a separate hardware item located between two aligned shafts in the gear system. The flexible coupling takes extra space, beyond the space requirements of the gear system. The present invention is directed to a gear system wherein a flexible coupling is incorporated into one of the gears, usually the drive gear. The invention is intended to minimize overall space requirements, and to reduce the cost of the shock-absorbing function. The built-in shock absorber reduces torsional stress on the associated gear, and thus prolongs the service life of the gear system.
Specific features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the attached drawings and description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention.